The present invention relates to a method of preparing automatically operating test equipment for the non-destructive testing of structural material.
Non-destructive tests of structural material are, for example, carried out by means of ultrasonics. The test electronics in the general sense includes circuitry for producing stimulating pulses for ultrasonic vibrations, and the electronics includes additional circuitry for generating and processing electrical signals produced on the basis of ultrasonic vibrations received after the launched vibrations interacted with the structural material in some fashion. Still further circuits included in the electronics processes the electrical signals to determine, for example, the transit time or other propagation times of specific signal portions (peaks, onset of peaks) and/or signal amplitudes are referenced to each other in some fashion. The signals as acquired are later evaluated, for example, in relation to stored reference data or by comparing the amplitudes of signals received and/or as produced under different conditions or after having passed through different lengths of the structural material, etc.
The processing can be carried out on the analog signals themselves or after they have been digitized. In accordance with requirements for test engineering, the test electronic must be highly individually designed. In other words, the particular equipment, that is to say, the type of transmitters and receivers, the type of signal processing, the number and design of different transmitter and receiver channels and their interconnection into a system depends to a considerable extent on the desired and required testing and on the test object, its dimensions, configuration, etc. It was found to be quite difficult to change a particular test electronic circuit in accordance with a change in these requirements. For example, a simple change such as a change in sequence of multiple sequential tests requires, in fact, redesigning and extensive intervention in the test electronic circuit.
Aside from differences in sequencing or just in the number of tests to be conducted, the electronics involved has to operate on the basis of specific parameters which are different for each of the different tests to be conducted. Of interest here is particularly test equipment in which an object is being tested from different aspects and by means of ultrasonic beams directed into and through the test object, for example, from different angles and in different directions to obtain a high resolution of the tests on one hand and to permit ascertaining of errors, flaws, defects, etc. in the structural material anywhere in the test object. Thus, each individual test is highly individualized, and the operating parameters differ individually. Such individual parameter include, for example, the period of time between the issuance of the transmitter pulse and the beginning of the period during which a meaningful response can be expected, such response being, for example, a signal that propagated through the structural material or an echo signal, i.e. test signal which was reflected by a flaw or a boundary of the object. Other parameters are the necessary gain in the receiving circuit; threshold responses to amplitudes, or transit times, etc. These parameters can all be adjusted but it is very clear that each particular and unique parameter which is needed within the test system is separately adjusted, and there must be provided at least one particular adjusting member for each parameter. There may be some sharing of system components in the equipment but the adjustment of parameters for a multi-head or multi-channel system becomes plainly a matter of multiplying the needed parameters in accordance with an increase in test head, test channels, etc. Since these parameters have to be adjusted manually it is apparent that the probability of incorrect adjustment increases with the complexity of the system, so does the time it takes to initialize and check the test system and its adjustment.
In some instances, the utilization of electronic data processing equipment has been employed in order to evaluate, for example, test results to determine whether certain limits have been exceeded, to calculate propagation times, etc. The known equipment, however, is not designed to adjust the test electronic in accordance with the operation of a processing system.